Wednesday Notebook: Players enjoy the view

Published: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 | 5:45 p.m.

By Josh Ball, PGA.com Contributor

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda -- Padraig Harrington's focus on the eighth green Wednesday might well have been the difference between his outright victory in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf and facing another playoff.

Faced with a 40-footer for birdie, Harrington cut a lone figure on the green as the rest of the group and their caddies gazed at the blue waters that surround Bermuda.

"When you're on that green, you'd better take a look, because it's pretty special," said Keegan Bradley afterward. "I think that Padraig after he made his putt, he joked with us, "Now I get to go watch the view."

"That view, no matter where you are in the tournament or how you're playing, you kind of have to stop and look at it, because it's as good of a view on a golf course as there is in the world."

MAJOR FUTURE: In a career of peaks and troughs, Padraig Harrington thinks he's approaching a high point again.

Asked if he thought there was another major in his immediate future, though, the Irishman was less sure.

"Expecting to win a major, that would be -- wow, you would love to expect to win a major, just like that. Sounds easy saying it," he said. "I believe I'm playing really good golf. I believe that there's good stuff in my game already, and I believe that there's other stuff that I need to tidy up.

"I see a lot of good things happening and I do believe that I'm turning the corner into a peak. What those peaks are, we'll wait and see."

CELEBRATING THE PRESENT: While Harrington was busy holing a clutch putt for par on 16, TNT course reporter Billy Kratzert was talking to Harrington’s wife Caroline about her husband's chances of winning.

Slightly peeved at having his round jinxed, Harrington told his wife as he passed her: "Don't spend the money yet."

With the $600,000 prize fund securely in pocket a little later, however, there was no doubt how Harrington was going to spend the evening. After asking whether he could 'rock' the winner's pink jacket at the celebration party, he then confirmed what many expected the evening might hold.

"I think we haven't had a win in a long time and I've got to tell you, they don't come around anywhere near as often as you believe they come around," he said, "and when you win, you make sure you enjoy it."